City Cast Pittsburgh

It’s the Friday news roundup! This week, the City Cast team is talking about how city officials are tackling what they call an open-air drug market in Downtown; why hundreds of nursing home workers went on strike across the state; and how the Carnegie Science Center is paying homage to George Romero with a mini “Night of the Living Dead” model. As always, our Friday shows are powered by great loca...

The national 988 hotline, which went live in July, provides free and confidential emotional support for people with mental health emergencies. But as it's been rolled out, crisis intervention centers that handle the calls say they're in need of more staff and other resources. We're with Dr. Jack Rozel, medical director of resolve Crisis Services in Allegheny County, to talk about the promise and p...

Can you imagine sitting down with a crispy plate of fries, reaching for your trusty bottle of ketchup, and watching it explode? It was a real problem in the late 19th century! But our very own H.J. Heinz figured it out — or rather, he had one very special fan who did it for him. We're with writer Sam Lin-Sommer of Gastro Obscura to talk about how it all went down. Check out his story, “When Every...

For the rest of this month, people with non-violent cannabis convictions can apply for clemency through the “Marijuana Pardon Project.” But those charges generally come compounded with a slew of other ones. So realistically, how many people are actually going to benefit? City Cast Pittsburgh & City Cast Philly are joining forces to talk through the loopholes and how it could help at least a few th...

In her new book “How Not to Drown in a Glass of Water,” Pittsburgh author Angie Cruz tells the story of Cara Romero, a Spanish-speaking immigrant in her mid-50s who's done speaking softly about her life experience. City Cast‘s Meg Dalton is with the writer, who says the novel’s funny, open, and flawed main character will resonate with readers in the Steel City and beyond. Cruz is also an associate...

It's the Friday news roundup, but a special Fall Fest edition! The whole team is previewing some of the best festivals the Steel City has to offer this autumn. Check out our working list here: Original Pittsburgh Taco Festival Sept 10 Corn Festival Sept 10 Hilltop Harvest Fest Sept 10 2022 Highmark Blues & Heritage Fest Sept 14-15 Penn Brew Oktoberfest Sept 16-18 & 23-25 Ohiopyle Wine and Arts Fes...

We’re (hopefully) out of the “Hell’s Front Porch” part of summer — and what’s better than a fall picnic?! City Cast’s Mallory Falk and Morgan Moody are with travel writer and Pittsburgh native, Abbie Synan, to give us tips on how to select the plan and plan the perfect Burgh basket. Check out her full list of suggestions in today's newsletter and for NEXTPittsburgh here: https://nextpittsburgh.com...

Have you ever heard of the “Rooney Rule?” It’s been an NFL hiring policy for decades, but it’s not clear how well it’s working. (At the end of last season, Pittsburgh’s Mike Tomlin was the only Black head coach left standing.) City Cast’s Morgan Moody is with her friend Martenzie Johnson, a sports writer for ESPN’s Andscape, talking about how it got passed, why it’s named after Steelers ownership,...

It’s pretty convenient to leave your recycling at the curb, but it can be a lot more convenient for facilities to process those materials when they’re pre-sorted. The first of several new glass drop-off facilities opened this summer in Allegheny County, and officials hope it’ll mean a lot more of our waste gets back on the shelf. We’re with The Allegheny Front’s Julie Grant. The Pennsylvania Resou...

It's the Friday news roundup! Today the team previews their picks for an eventful Labor Day weekend, including parades and Presidential visits; BBQ and soul food; plus the latest on how Allegheny County's Police Review Board could come together by the fall. Our newsletter is fresh daily at 6 a.m. Sign up here. We’re also on Twitter @citycastpgh & Instagram @CityCastPgh!

Have you ever heard the drum line under Styx's 1979 hit "Renegade" pick up on the speakers at a Steelers game? What started as your average in-game timeout song in 2002 became an iconic good luck charm in the minds of thousands of Pittsburgh fans all over the world. City Cast's Megan Harris figured it was all superstition, but thanks to researchers at Point Park University, we now know there's dat...

The best rivalry in college sports is back — and it usually ends with some furniture going up in flames. Pitt and West Virginia have been facing off in the Backyard Brawl since 1895, but the matchup’s been on hiatus since Pitt left the Big East Conference over a decade ago. That’s all changing tomorrow, when the Panthers will play the Mountaineers once more at Acrisure Stadium. Brian Batko, sports...

Hundreds of people from our surrounding states have been coming to Pittsburgh for abortion care since was Roe was overturned, but local clinics say they need more providers to keep up with demand. Pallavi Muluk, a second-year Pitt med student, thinks medical schools can help by making abortion care and reproductive health a bigger part of the curriculum. She’s here to talk about her work leading t...

Pittsburgh is known as a cloudy and rainy city, but this summer has been unseasonably dry. Climate and forestry scientists say the change in climate could mean more severe wildfires in places like Western Pennsylvania, where there are large forested areas. Wildfire expert and Penn state professor of geography and ecology Alan Taylor joins us to talk about the risks our forests could face over the...

It's the Friday news roundup! The team is embracing its love for the Pittsburgh potty. This week, hear all about a free transportation pilot program for some residents on the North Side; where you can see a tiny home in Pittsburgh this weekend made from totally repurposed materials; and how Duquesne is hoping to woo Lebron James’ son, Bryce. And don’t forget: CITY CAST IS HIRING: If you’re looking...

Host Morgan Moody is adjusting her gears and facing her fears today with a pedaling lesson from a pro, Black Girls Do Bike founder Monica Garrison. The group started as a local effort to build a community of women of color who love to bike, and it’s grown to have over 100 chapters worldwide. This weekend, the international collective is expecting hundreds of members from the U.S. and abroad to mee...

Median home prices have tripled in Lawrenceville and surrounding communities over the last decade, forcing many residents out — particularly people of color. So in 2019, the city tried something new: inclusionary zoning, which put strict rules on new development. The city tested out the policy in Lawrenceville, then expanded it to Bloomfield and Polish Hill. Advocates say it’s helping, or it could...

Five people have died in custody at the Allegheny County Jail this year, putting it on track for the deadliest year in recent memory. County Executive Rich Fitzgerald announced a new contract with the National Commission on Correctional Health Care to look into what happened, but there’s almost no transparency about the process. Brittany Hailer, the director for the Pittsburgh Institute for Nonpro...

Thousands of plant-loving Pittsburghers will gather on the North Side this weekend for the eighth annual VegFest — a summer celebration with rescue animals, local artists, vendors, and of course, killer food (that doesn’t kill). City Cast Pittsburgh’s resident vegetarians, Francesca Dabecco and Mallory Falk, are with VegFest co-founder Leila Sleiman to talk about how this event has grown and what...

It’s the Friday news roundup! The team is talking about how a new executive order from Gov. Wolf could help protect kids from conversion therapy, and why two former Pa. judges were ordered to pay $200 million to victims of a “kids-for-cash” scheme. Plus, with an immersive psychedelic conference in town, when could tripping for science become legal? As always, our Friday shows are powered by great...

In the year following the fall of Kabul to the Taliban, Pittsburgh has welcomed more than 700 Afghan evacuees. The non-profit Jewish Family and Community Services has helped many of them get settled in their new homes, but they’re still facing issues within the U.S. immigration system. City Cast’s Morgan Moody speaks with Ivonne Smith-Tapia, the Director of Refugee and Immigrant Services at JFCS,...

Jasmine Green — aka Black Girl Absolute — wants young people struggling with depression and anxiety to know they’re not alone. That’s what inspired the visual artist, poet, and mental health advocate to start writing the book “A Field Guide for Blue Girls.” She joins City Cast to talk about putting pen (and paint) to paper during her time as the first-ever recipient of the Exposure Tongue River Ar...

For decades now, Pittsburghers have been told we have the most bridges of any city in the world. And it makes sense — they dot our landscape by the hundreds. Butttt it turns out, that long-held point of pride isn’t true. And like, it’s not even close. Historian and author Mark Houser is here to talk about our past prominence and current failures, plus what we can glean from the federal database ke...

ASMR is supposed to be relaxing, but for the creators behind the content, platforms like YouTube often fall well short of protecting the people who keep it so popular. Pittsburgh-based artist Lilliana Dee, aka Lily Whispers, is here to explain how she uses her day job in cyber security to help educate fellow creators on red flags like fetish mining. And stick with us to the end — Lily offered some...

It’s the Friday news roundup! The team is talking about how long standing college football rivals, Pitt and WVU, are facing off for the first time in more than a decade; what the grand opening celebration of the August Wilson House means for the Hill District; and how the big bird, Giant Eagle, is using (and sharing) our shopping data, and ways that it could be targeting those who are, want to bec...